Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Now it is three boys and me!

Our golden retriever is named Matches...which came about as the idea of playing with Matches just seemed kind of funny. So in keeping with his name we name our new little kitten, Zippo. I am not sure yet who is more scared of each other, the cat or the dog.

Even after scheduling myself an extra day off, the weekend still flew by. The Cleveland Triathlon Club that I joined this year is running a 10 day virtual training camp where we are tracking our points which we accumulate on swims, bike rides, and runs. So this has been a good incentive to get outside and enjoy the weather while getting in some training.

Saturday left the house for a 15 mile loop from Parkman to Garrettsville. This was a scenic route and on two separate accounts I had to wait for deer to get out of the roads. I was also passed by the most gigantic piece of farm equipment which took up 3/4 of the road which was extremely intimidating. Sunday morning I met up with two other Clev Tri members and we did a 25 mile bike loop and a 4 mile run starting from the South Chagrin Reservation. It was my first time that I had trained out in that area and it is gorgeous. One of the best things about it was the amount of other people in the area riding and running...so at least all the local traffic is fairly used to sharing the road.

Monday afternoon I had planned a nice long afternoon workout. I started out at my gym in Garrrettsville, which is my familiar stomping ground from my elem, middle, & high school days. I ran 1.5 miles to a trail where they took the railroad out and I ran out another 3.5 miles which absolutely flew by! Then I turned around for a total of 10 miles. The trail is marked off with mileage, offers nice scenery, and the trail surface is so much better than the road. Once back to my car I grabbed a quick drink and was off on my bike. I had planned a 14 mile loop which would take me past my parent's house. The road surfaces were rather crappy the trip out to my parents and I thought my ankle was sure to be a goner to some growling dog that caught me off guard. I had attached mase to my bicycle bars in case of such a predicament (after my last dog incident about a month ago) but I am going to have to react a little quicker. At any rate, I pedaled hard a couple revolutions and the dog reversed course and I was relieved. I totally freiked out at snake in the road, even though I could tell it was already dead. I stopped at my folks for water and to give their dog some loving. It is so hard to start again after stopping. I decided to brave the traffic and take the main road back to Garrettsville, which worked out fine. It had a decent berm and a nice smooth surface. I thought about swimming and doing a total reverse tri, but I was pretty tired...so I called it a day!

No need to post this, but I read on the CTC forum that you were interested in the Wednesday night ride. That's awesome.

The ride leaves promptly at 18:00. I would recommend getting there about 17:30 since the lot will probably be packed. "There" being the parking lot on Bolanz Road by Szalay's barn. (It's between Riverview and A-P, just north of where the CTC DUs were held.)

And I guess Dave said the workout will be hill repeats. Not to scare you, but these Wednesday workouts should give you a good kick in the arse. But the results of your hard work from these workouts will be undeniable.

I may be there tomorrow. I will have a navy blue "Team ER" jersey and light blue biking shoes. Feel free to email me for more information.

I freak over snakes too - dead or alive. I was running one day on my lunch break and noticed one crawling across the road about 10 yards ahead of me...I turned around right then and ran all the way back to work as fast as I could!!!!